A/N I own things but Dragon Ball and Mass Effect aren't any of them.
Wow, this is quickly catching up to my other fic in terms of Favourites/Follows. Still a little behind in reviews, but gaining ground. Thank you all for the interest that you have shown in this story.
So after the reviews and suggestions from a few people after last chapter, I realised that I was probably trying too hard to combine and yet keep separate the DB and ME universes. I am just going to have humans be the dominant species and the furries be rare genetic mutations/evolutions that exist and are known about but are counted as any other citizen (thanks DejDem).
On an unrelated note, I was wondering how you readers came across this story. After all, this is still the only DBS/ME story on the site so it's not like you were able to just be browsing the options like you could for one of the big crossover groups. So let me know how you saw it.
Comments:
I won't be replying to every review on here but if there is something that catches my eye that I feel needs to be responded to then I will do so.
Guest: That seems very much in line with an angry Vegeta. Maybe it will come to that, maybe not. We will see in the next few chapters.
Guest-Questioner: Not sure about the 30-40 generations. According to what I have seen in the lore, it is more about a person's ability to access their ki. This is mostly easier for people who have done a martial art as they are more practiced in meditation, which was how Videl could tap into it, according to the anime. Otherwise Yamcha would likely not have been able to tap his power. After that it was all about raising a person's strength and power through training. I could be wrong, but that is the way I am going with this fic. Other than that I hope that this doesn't fail as it could be good, so long as I do it right.
Everyone else: thank you.
As always, if you want the story to keep going then Favourite/Follow/Review.
On with the story!
…
"Talking"
Telepathy/mind speech
CHAPTER 4 - CONFLICT
Desolas looked at the face on the screen staring at him, feeling a little impatient. Civilians tended to have that effect on him. If it wasn't for the particular information that the turian civilian was calling him about then it was most likely that he would have shut off the comms already.
The female that was on the other end of the call had already called him rude and impertinent though so at least he knew that he was pushing the sort of buttons that meant he wouldn't be mistaken for someone with a passion of archaeology.
"… which would be represented by the stylistic degrees of the Third Age prothean records that were discovered at Muskava shortly after the quarians made contact with the Citadel," she finished in a tone so pompous it seemed to Desolas that the woman would almost be trying to make him believe that she had made the discoveries, done the work on them and translated them all herself. He forced himself out of the stupor that her voice was forcing him into.
"As fascinating as the history is," he said with a tone of biting sarcasm, "all that I really care about is the translation of the message."
The woman flared her mandibles in indignation. "One must know history if they wish to learn from it," she declared in a tone that made him wish that there was one less turian in the galaxy.
He frowned at his own thought. Today there had already been too many turians taken away from the galaxy. "Fine," he said in resignation. "I trust that you do have the full translation?"
Her mandibles returned to their neutral position. "Indeed. I hope you realise that this request was far more complex than any usual translation. There were no individual databases that had every word translated. In fact, some we only discovered ourselves from the context of the message. And the fact that you didn't want us to simply call and ask for the information from the asari, whose databases are far more extensive than our own might I add, made the task a great deal more complicated. Do you know how many run arounds and false profiles we had to create in a very short time…?"
"I apologise Doctor Nexys," Desolas interrupted, hoping to be done with this conversation already, "but while I appreciate the effort you have made in such an expeditious manner, at the moment I am currently in an active warzone and I don't really have a great deal of free time. Do you have a translation of the message that was sent?"
She flared her mandible in self-righteous frustration. "Yes," she said hotly. "The message, so far as we believe it was translated as saying, was, and I quote: 'Our deaths are guaranteed now, but we don't fear it, nor have we failed.' though admittedly it might have meant to be defeated or destroyed. 'You and your people are already dead. You just are not smart enough to realise it.' That's about it, to the best of our abilities in the time limit and under the constraints of secrecy that you have demanded. Though why you needed to know…"
"Yes, thank you for that, goodbye." He disconnected the line before she had a chance to do more than squawk in protest before the screen went blank. He sat back in his chair and rubbed at the pounding inside his skull. Civilians.
He shook that thought out of his head and turned his focus to the message. Clearly it meant that there were going to be reinforcements. If they fought as fiercely and, he hated to add, skilfully as the original defenders then Desolas knew that his people would be in trouble. The numbers of fully combat active ships that didn't need some sort of time in a shipyard was less than half his original number and it was only that good thanks to Tyraenus's reinforcements. Damn these aliens. His career was now riding on the outcome of this campaign.
"Status of the ground forces?" he called out.
"The ground commander has reported that there has been significant resistance from the local forces but they have established a beachhead at the main spaceport," General Ruios reported immediately. "Casualties are high but not unmanageable. Enemy casualties are unknown but going by reports they are fairly light. Enemy weapons are laser-based and are not being stopped by our barriers."
He frowned at that report. "Send any available frigates over to provide air support and all fighters to conduct low altitude strafing runs," he ordered. "I don't want any of the aliens to be able to organise a counter attack."
"Yes, General."
He watched as he waited for the orders to be carried out, quietly hoping that the reports would become more positive soon.
An explosion in atmosphere as a frigate was destroyed was the moment that things went to hell.
"Where did that weapon come from?" he demanded.
"No idea sir! There's nothing on scopes."
"General, ground forces are being taken out by unknown combatants at a rapid rate! Ground commander is ordering a retreat to the space port and calling for extraction. Casualties up to sixty five percent of total force and rising. They don't have any idea what it is!"
"Armoured vehicles are reporting as ineffective against reinforcements. Apparently whatever it is, it is going too fast and is too small to be able to get a lock."
"Well, what is it?" Desolas shouted.
"Unknown, sir! The thing is too small and fast. Front line personal are jabbering on about it being a man or robot."
A beam of light suddenly appeared from nowhere, cutting off all conversation, and made its way quickly towards a clustered group of cruisers. Too quickly. Far too quickly.
A blinding explosion forced Desolas to turn away from the view screen as the coating on the windows and the cameras attempted to compensate for the brightness by turning opaque. When the light died down he looked at his screen and his mouth dropped open.
Ten ships, six cruisers and four frigates were completely gone. Not compacted and pulled apart like the others had been from the gravity missiles. Gone. Not even rubble was left. Six more ships that had been somewhat close to the explosion were also badly damaged and were barely managing to limp away. Two of them appeared to be venting atmosphere from large breaches in their hulls.
"Origin of the blast puts it somewhere in the upper atmosphere," the combat officer called out.
"I'm not reading any weapons or anything at all from that area," a frustrated sensor officer yelled out. "Whatever it is must be cloaked like nothing we have seen before."
A deep sense of foreboding ran through Desolas as he listened to the frantic reports being called out all around him. This must have been what the aliens had meant from his transmission. Well he refused to go down that way.
"Find out where whatever that weapon is and destroy it!" he barked out, feeling his fury rising.
The clamour of the bridge died down for a moment, just long enough for Desolas to know that something wasn't right but the shocked looks the officers were sending at something behind his back before their panicked cries started. He whirled around to see what they were staring at… and froze.
"Spirits…"
…
Goku arrived back at the Lookout with the last two Dragon Balls to find Dende and Mr Popo waiting for him.
"Great work Goku!" Dende exclaimed. "You managed to get them all so quickly. I don't think you have ever done it faster than that."
"Well, Mr Popo promising to have food for me when I got done was a great incentive!" Goku confessed with a big grin. "So I just used instant transmission with the Dragon Radar to get to them as quick as I could!"
Dende and Mr Popo exchanged a knowing smile. "That's Goku," Mr Popo sighed. "I am going to go see how the egg rolls are going." He turned and headed towards the kitchen.
Dende looked back at Goku. "So you just want us to hold them?" he asked.
Goku frowned thoughtfully. "Actually it might be better to use them," he said. "If we can fix all the damage that is done by these aliens it would probably be better for everyone."
Dende looked surprised. "That's actually a good idea Goku," he replied. "No offense but I wold have thought that would come from you."
Goku grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah well Gohan has been trying to help me think things through more," he explained. "It's frustrating but it's good to know that I am improving enough to surprise you. It means that it's finally working."
Dende nodded. "Ok, well we shall wait until we hear from Gohan before we summon the dragon."
"Sounds good! Now, where are those egg rolls that Mr Popo mentioned? And does he have noodles?"
…
Valern looked at the STG reports in front of him, frowning. A fleet and a dreadnought task force don't just go wandering through uninhabited regions of space where the only things that were identifiable were an empty solar system and an inactive relay. There was no tangible reason that he could think of for why they had gone to Relay 314.
Not yet anyway. A report from the spy drone that had been sent to investigate should be back any moment now. Then there should hopefully be some answers. And who knows, maybe the STG team hidden in the Traverse would be able to decrypt those transmissions that had been sent. It wasn't uncommon for a turian patrol to send transmissions back to turian worlds or even to one of the other Council worlds, but it was nearly always done using an encryption that was registered with the STG in case of emergencies. There were relatively few things that were done in a way to hide such information from the salarians or the asari. They were supposed to be allies after all.
That didn't mean that they weren't all secretly competing for dominance against the others. Salarians were fighting with information and secrecy, turians through military might and asari through technology. Despite the appearance that their alliance provided, Valern knew that there was plenty of secrets that each of the races kept from each other. He had even wondered from time to time what would happen if the Council consulted the Shadow Broker to learn what he knew about their secrets. He also secretly fears what would happen from such knowledge. As it was, he already knew plenty of things about the turians and asari that they would rather he not know.
It didn't help things that the turian primarch was trying to play them for fools. "Planned manoeuvres to keep skills sharp in a place that wasn't likely to attract attention." That was basically begging him to send a spy probe to watch.
A beep from his terminal roused his thoughts back to the present and he looked to see, with no small amount of satisfaction, that the reports from the spy probe team had come in. He read through them quickly, feeling his frown grow more and more as the report went on. Relay 314 was no longer inactive. Were they activating relays? Is that why they were sending their transmissions with unknown encryptions? The spy probe couldn't risk going too close to the newly activated relay for fear of discovery, which made it difficult to know what was going on beyond the relay. The only thought that made sense was the one even a simpleton like Sparatus could recognise: there was something that the turian in charge didn't want the other races to know. The only other real option was one that made him concerned for another reason; a new race had been discovered.
The turians already had the volus as a client race. If they were to gain another client race it could upset the delicate balance of power that the main three races held. If there was a new race that was at least half as resourceful as the volus then it spelt unfortunate things for the salarians. And the asari too, he supposed.
He looked again at the STG profile of admiral in charge. General Desolas Arterius. It was a name that was synonymous with brutal efficiency. The main thing that he was concerned with was achieving his objective, whatever that was. He didn't seem care what the cost was as long as he was successful. He had been used a handful of times by the Council to hunt down slavers that made their way through the Athena Nebula and had gained a reputation for not showing mercy to the point of excessiveness. Valern felt his frown deepen.
He sent out a message to his fellow councillors, requesting a priority meeting. It would be answered, he knew. And then there would be answers… He just hoped that General Arterius didn't do anything rash before then.
…
Gohan looked up at the alien in front of him. He knew that he wasn't the tallest person in the galaxy at his six feet in height. He was taller than his dad by about an inch, maybe two, but this alien stood nearly a head taller than he was. It had grey skin, black eyes, some sort of military uniform which was more extravagantly decorated than the others on the ships bridge, three fingers which looked rather sharp and some sort of spiky frill coming out the back of his head. It also had a set of some kind of second jaw bones on the outside of his mouth, like a mandible. Said mandible was currently flared in what Gohan guessed was shock.
"Are you in charge of these ships?" Gohan demanded, feeling his anger starting to rise a little higher and doing his best to clamp down on it.
The alien jabbered in some sort of flanging tone that Gohan had no hope of recognising. He frowned at that. Because of King Kai's influence nearly every other alien race he had met had spoken in a language that he had been able to understand. This was the first time that he had needed a translator. He knew that the old saiyan scouters provided translation software but he had never seen this type of alien before and had no idea if the language had ever been studied under the old saiyan empire. He doubted it. The Milky Way galaxy had been on the very outskirts of Frieza's territory and as far as Vegeta had ever told him, this area of the universe hadn't been scouted before Frieza subjugated the saiyans. Some random scout would have been first and his dad was the first one to actually make contact from the Planetary Trade Organisation when had been sent there.
"I can't understand you," Gohan cut the alien off. Lots of other aliens started aiming weapons at him. Not good. Things were going downhill fast. He decided to do the only thing that might possibly work; he reached out with his mind to the alien in the fancy uniform.
Are you the one in charge? he asked, trying to sound calm.
The alien jerked its head back and squawked. It's in my head. Aim at it! The translation came through his mind clear as day. One problem solved, another problem added as even more soldiers pulled guns out and aimed them at him.
Why are you attacking the people down there? They are innocent of any crime against you, he asked. I don't want to hurt any more of your people but the humans down there don't deserve your attacks on them.
The alien fixed him with a solid glare. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
How else am I supposed to communicate to you? Gohan asked, feeling hopeful that there may be an avenue that the alien may use to talk.
It wasn't to be. GET OUT! Shoot this thing now! it screeched. The moment that it said that the soldiers opened fire with their weapons. Thousands of miniscule pellets flew out from their guns, smaller than human bullets and less powerful than lasers but much, much faster. They pinged against his ki-enhanced skin doing no damage whatsoever. They felt even less powerful than the bullets did. Compared to a ki blast, this wasn't even as powerful as sand being blown in the wind.
You can't hurt me, Gohan tried reasoning with it, even as he felt his anger rising at the stubbornness and violent attitudes these aliens had. It was like dealing with Frieza's minions all over again, just with mandibles. I don't want to have to hurt you. Let us talk about this.
The alien, seeing that Gohan wasn't taking any damage, barked for the soldiers to stop shooting. Get the heavy weapons and explosives! Engage in close combat to distract him!
Four of the alien soldiers wearing full body armour and holding wickedly sharp knives while others ran off out the door. Gohan's heart sank as he realised that there was likely no way for this to end peacefully unless they were shown to be completely outmatched. The soldiers reached him and struck out with their claws and their knives. Gohan ducked, twisted and shimmied out of the way easily, avoiding contact with their strikes without any problem. After a moment he grew tired, knowing that he was wasting time. With care, he struck each of the soldiers once with the blade of his hand. They all dropped instantly and Gohan felt the mind of their leader get both angrier and more afraid.
He turned to look at the alien and saw that the being had a weapon pointed at him. Surrender yourself and your planet to the Turian Hierarchy or I will be forced to take action.
Gohan frowned. This doesn't have to be that way! He objected, trying to defuse the situation. No one else needs to get hurt!
Last chance, surrender the planet or I will continue attacking! the alien's mind was full of desperation.
I can't surrender the planet, it's not mine! Gohan objected. You and your people having been killing innocent civilians who have nothing to do with you. Stop attacking them. I don't want to hurt you!
The alien's mind flooded with a range of thoughts that felt desperate. It settled on one thought that sent a chill through Gohan's spine and made his anger flare even as the grey skinned alien gave utterance to it.
All ships fire on the planet with MACS!
NO! Gohan yelled even as the deck rumbled with a successful fire. In the blink of an eye he powered up to SSB and used the Multi-Form Technique and had his three clones use Instant Transmission back to the planet. He looked helplessly out the window and saw that more than a hundred other ships were also firing at the planets.
He threw his mind toward to the planet. Garlack, Andur, Kori! The ships are firing at the planet. Make sure that their shots don't' hit the people. Try and catch the shots if you can, just make sure no one gets hurt.
Right! three affirmative responses came back immediately, along with a flare of power as the three saiyans transformed to their super levels.
Gohan looked back out the window, feeling desperate. SS or not, those projectiles were moving fast and there were a lot of them. There was only one thing to do.
You made me do this, he growled to the mind of the alien, the viciousness of his mental tone making the taller alien fall back, but keeping his pistol pointed at Gohan. These deaths are on your head.
He focussed inwards and built up his ki to high level, his skin beginning to glow from the efforts. The alien in front of him stumbled away in fear, just as other soldiers appeared from a hallway holding larger weapons. Finally, he took a large breath.
Then he released the ki.
The blast immediately vaporised the entire ship that he was on, as well as all other ships in a thousand kilometres. Gohan found himself in space, his SSB form allowing him to survive the vacuum. Breathing was the only thing that would be a problem for him in this form, something that couldn't be remedied until he returned to the planet. He looked quickly around at the other alien ships in orbit around the planet. Only a few were not actually shooting anything, including one of the largest ones. The rest were shooting at the planet over and over again.
Gohan, we need you to do something quick! Garlack shouted into his mind. Apparently the saiyan was talking to one of Gohan's clones who in turn was relaying it to Gohan himself. These shots are starting to get a little overwhelming!
With a feeling of helpless frustration and anger at the alien who had caused all of this, Gohan powered up and shot through the black void, moving faster than any of the aliens could possibly track. He fired ki blasts as he went, turning ships into vaporised remains of themselves as he shot by. The aliens inside were all dead before they even saw the bright lights of the ki blast. He only focussed on the ships that were firing at the planet. Any alien ship that either couldn't or refused to shoot was spared. He kept going until at long last he had blasted any ship that was shooting at the planet. The whole ordeal took less than a minute to completely obliterate the alien forces.
The big ship that hadn't been firing turned and began to flee back to the relay, along with a few others. The rest of the alien ships were burned husks floating dead in space or reduced completely to scrap metal. There were only eight in total making their way away from the planet towards the glowing thing in the distance that Gohan realised was the relay that the army woman had been talking about. Eight from what had less than two minutes ago been hundreds.
He let them go. That had been enough killing for one day. He felt disappointed that it had to go this way. Placing two fingers on his head, he vanished into the planet to see the damage and to reunite with his clones.
…
A/N
SS = super saiyan
SSB = super saiyan blue
SSR = super saiyan rose
SSW = super saiyan white
SSG = super saiyan god
SSBK = super saiyan black
Super saiyan red will not be featured from here onwards. I don't know how to edit the stories without affecting the reviews already there or completely deleting other chapters. Sorry. If someone feels like explaining how to do that, PM me.